The Administrative Law Enforcement police have seized 75 protected wader and song birds from a greenhouse complex near Bahrija following a tip from the CABS’ operations centre.

CABS (The Committee Against Bird Slaughter formed mostly of German volunteers) said one of its teams yesterday heard unusual bird calls from a greenhouse complex in the area of the former maritime radio station at Wied Rini.The calls were clearly those of a sandpiper, not usually found near greenhouses.

"Our suspicions were aroused and we called in the ALE.”

The police arrived within15 minutes and searched the complex. They discovered a large aviary which contained almost exclusively protected species, namely 32 Little Stints (Tertuxa), 13 Wood Sandpipers (Swejda Cara), eight Common Sandpipers (Pispisella), five Little Ringed Plovers (Monakella), five Green Sandpipers (Swejda), two White Wagtails (Zakak Adjad), two Yellow Wagtails (Isfar) and one each of Red-throated Pipit (Dizz Ahmar), Dunlin (Pispisella tad-Dabra), Temminck’s Stint (Tertuxa Griza) and a Ring Ouzel (Malvzz tas-Sidra). Three other birds died before rescue.

The birds, many of which had had their wings clipped, were subsequently cared for by MEPA specialists and taken away. The raid, which continued on into the early evening yesterday, resulted in the seizure of the largest collection of living water birds yet discovered in Malta. The black market value of the confiscated birds was assessed by experts to be more than €20,000.

After a night in police custody the birds were this morning transported to the Ghadira nature reserve where they were released.

“It was great to see these maltreated creatures regain their freedom” Mr Hirschfeld said. CABS will remain on Malta until September 28 to combat illegal hunting in cooperation with the police and local conservationists.

The daily online diary, documenting the activities of the 24 voluntary activists, is at www.komitee.de/en.